Aging and enjoying are not two contradictory terms.
Here is what Emma Thompson, 63, recalls in a column published on the
Vogue UK
website , Tuesday, June 14.
On the poster for the comedy
Good Luck To You
, the actress plays a retired religious education teacher and widow.
After years of sexual dissatisfaction, she desires to experience enjoyment and calls on the services of a sex worker in her twenties, or "sex therapist", as he calls himself.
A scenario that runs counter to hackneyed jokes about aging and (too) young lovers, assures the actress.
And perhaps the way to change our view of the intimacy of women over 50.
Read alsoSexuality after 60, the end of taboo, the beginning of pleasure
“In our younger years, we were constantly pestered about orgasms”
Emma Thompson says that the filming gave her food for thought about the injunctions and stereotypes that surround the sex life of people in their fifties and over.
"Does anyone know or care about the satisfaction or sexual pleasure of middle-aged women?" she asks.
In our younger years, we were constantly pestered by
Cosmo
about orgasms (…) The focus on accomplishment was frankly a bit daunting.”
She continues, "We were taught that older women might want more sex sometimes, and that's how the cougar myth was born, like so many of the sexual labels we're meant to embody."
An intimidating exposure
In parallel with these reflections, Emma Thompson admits to having been very intimidated at the start of filming, at the idea of undressing in front of her partner, Daryl McCormack.
"Especially if you're a post-menopausal woman in her 60s who recently ate way too many comfort-seeking cakes, and the young person in front of you is in amazingly perfect shape," he quips. -she.
Read alsoSex and menopause: the party is not over
But the particular approach of director Sophie Hyde was enough to disinhibit the sixty-something and her partner.
"The three of us stood completely naked and talked about our bodies and what we liked and disliked about them," she says.
A visibly successful experience.
"It's easier to be honest when there's literally nothing to hide, and it's inevitably humiliating.
But after that, there is nothing more to fear, ”recalls Emma Thompson, congratulating herself in passing for not having tried to lose weight to prepare for her role.
Thanks to
Good Luck To You
, Emma Thompson hopes to deploy a more liberated word about desire.
Even distilling more open-mindedness concerning the professions of assistant or sex helper, essential in his eyes.
"Sex is free, natural, normal, delicious, good for us and, as Leo says in the film, inaccessible to some for all sorts of reasons," she laments.
It is, however, a matter of public health.”